The Aboriginal Gospel

David L'Verty

This essay suggests a presentation of the Gospel in such a way that the Aboriginal people could understand it. It is based on past contact and friendship with Aboriginal people in remote Australia, and in particular close friendships with some leading Aboriginal Christians.

Lack of social justice and equity with other Australians are probably a barrier to the Gospel. It is unlikely Christianity will be able to answer their immediate physical needs, although it may provide an avenue in which to address some of their social problems should a revival take place.

The other main issues appear to be:

• Who Jesus was
• Jesus' power to perform miracles
• How to follow Jesus
• Baptism
• Does Christianity extinguish Aboriginal culture?

The presentation below is hypothetical and has not been qualitatively tested for understanding and acceptance by Aboriginals. It is based on an understanding of aspects of Aboriginal culture rather than feedback from it. As the cultural orientation was done in only one tribe, these suggestions cannot necessarily be generalised to all other Aboriginal tribes. The names of individuals and of tribes were deleted due to cultural sensitivities.

In the text below, the explanation of the Gospel is given in quotation marks, and the relevant rationales are included in square brackets. Obvious Bible verses have been deleted from this edited version.

Suggested Presentation

"Jesus family began long ago with a fella (1) called Abraham. Once Abraham was out bush when God told him to leave his country and go to a new land. God told Abraham ALL the people on earth would be blessed through him. Jesus ancestors included a prostitute called Rahab, and Kings."
[To Aboriginal people, knowing which tribe, family and community or town one comes from is all-important in providing people with an identity and place in their society and in the extended family. They want to know who are your mother, father, uncles and aunts, brothers, sisters and cousins. A prostitute and kings would signify that Jesus came from both outcasts of society and people of great importance. His ancestry would have great meaning to Aboriginals. Aboriginal people can relate to stories about incidents that happened a long time ago, such as in the Dreaming, when ancestors and spirits determined the nature of the world and its relationship to man.]

"Over 700 years before Jesus was born, God said to a man called Isaiah. 'I will send my messenger before sending my son to Earth. The messenger will prepare the way for his arrival.'

"The messenger will come from the desert and say, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him'."
[Desert Aboriginals would appreciate that the messenger came from the desert. This would interest them and strike a chord with them.]

"God wanted to send his son Jesus to Earth as a person, so the people could see him."
[The people in some tribes believe Earth's features were originally flat, and they were formed by beings, whom they believed came from under the Earth's surface. These spirit ancestors gradually began their journeys across the land. Although legend gave them appearance of creatures and plants, they behaved in the same manner as humans. Making camps, fires, cooking food and digging for water. (2)]

"So God planted a seed in a lady called Mary and made her pregnant."

"Afterwards, Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. But a bad King called Herod was unhappy Jesus was born. Herod tried to find Jesus to kill him. Herod failed because God warned Mary and her husband Joseph where to run away so Jesus would be safe. Herod then ordered the execution of all the boys in Bethlehem aged two or more to try and kill Jesus."
[This helps establish Jesus' credentials. First, he was born in common surroundings, a stable. Traditional Aboriginal births are on the ground, while it is conceded many that births are now in hospital, this is not always the case. To be born in one's own country, rather than in a hospital in a city, is spiritually important to Aboriginal people. Second, it establishes Jesus as having problems too. Third, in this case, he is an underdog, like our Aboriginal people, but wins out because of God.]

"Thirty years later, the messenger arrived. His name was John the Baptist. His mother Elizabeth was Mary's sister. So John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins.
[That John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins would be significant.]

"John came in from the desert telling everyone God's son Jesus was coming."

"John the Baptist then baptised Jesus and God was happy and talked from heaven so everyone could hear him."

"After his baptism, Jesus followed God's spirit into the desert to be tested by the devil. The devil appeared after Jesus hadn't eaten for forty days.
[Desert Aboriginals would be interested that this time Jesus was in the desert, their own environment. Having often gone hungry themselves, perhaps when broken down on the side of the road or out bush, they would appreciate Jesus fasting for forty days.]

"But Jesus was strong and told the devil to go away, because he would only serve God. So he passed the test."

"Jesus then got twelve men to help him teach people about God."

"As Jesus walked the land, he warned people to stop doing bad things.

[Traditionally, desert people had to travel long distances too, in order to hunt and move to known water supplies, as well as for traditional ceremonies.]

"Jesus had power from God and performed miracles. Jesus made:

• Sick people get better,
• Blind people see,
• Mute people talk,
• Paralysed people walk,
• Dead people come alive
• Evil demons come out of people.
• Lepers get cured.
  [Many Aboriginal tribes know of this disease and would be afraid of it. Jesus' power to heal lepers would be highly regarded.]
• A storm stop by speaking to it.
• A little bit of tucker for a few people enough to feed a big mob of four thousand people.
  ["Tucker" means 'food'.]

"Once Jesus had a big meeting with people who were being badly treated and told them when they died and went to heaven, God would reward them because they believed in Jesus."

"Jesus told the people God wanted people to be kind to each other so everyone would be happier."

"Jesus most important advice was for people to love God with all their heart, to love other people and to treat them how they like to be treated."

"Jesus said:

• "We are not to kill or beat people,
• "Married men aren't allowed to run around with other women,"
• "Not to divorce your missus unless she plays up,"
• "Not to participate in pay back"
  [Payback is prevalent among Aboriginal people.]
• "To look after people who don't have food or money or anywhere to sleep"
• "To love your enemies."

"One day, some men caught a married woman playing around with another fella. In Jesus' time, under their law, she could be stoned to death for this sin.

The men took her to Jesus and told him what she had done and asked him what should be done with her. These men were trying to test Jesus. But Jesus bent down and began drawing in the sand. When they kept asking him questions, Jesus said, if any of you has never done anything bad, you throw the first stone at her. He then began writing in the sand again. Because they all knew they had done bad things, they knew they could not throw any stones at her and they slowly walked off one by one. Soon, the only person left was the woman. Jesus looked up at her and asked where the men were. The woman said they were all gone. He asked if any one had thrown a rock at her, and she said no. Jesus then said, then I'm not going to throw a rock at you either. He also said to her, now you can go, but don't do bad things any more."

"Jesus loved children and warned God would punish anyone who harmed a child."

"Jesus said:

• "Not to worry about saving up our money and building big houses like the white fellas because we can't take it when we die and if we love money and not God, we can't get into Heaven."
• "To love God, so when we die, we will go to heaven and live in God's house."
• "Not to worry about what to eat or drink, because God will look after us like he does the finches, budgies, kangaroos and goannas". We are more important to God than these, and yet even they get fed. Jesus said only the people that don't know God worry about this stuff."
• "We can speak to God. He calls it praying. We can't see God, but he can see and hear us and he comes to us by his Spirit in dreams, visions, or when we read the Bible."
  [This is inserted because there needs to be further explanation of how God talks to us.]
• "We can tell God about our problems and ask for help."
• "If we tell others about Jesus, not keeping it secret that we love him, he will stick up for us with his Father in Heaven, making sure there's room for us there."
• "It's important to be clean on the inside, with pure hearts and good thoughts, so our actions will be good, not evil."

"But some people hated Jesus. They didn't believe he was God's son. So they made a plan to have him killed.

"Jesus could have escaped, but he chose to die to pay for our sins so we could have a new agreement with God, instead of living under a curse of sin.

"Judas, one of Jesus twelve helpers, betrayed him. Afterwards, in sorrow, Judas hung himself.
[Aboriginal people have suffered at the loss of family and friends committing suicide. They understand sorrow and call mourning "sorry time".]

"Jesus was nailed to a wooden cross and soon he died. Jesus body was placed in a cave, which was blocked with a boulder. Three days later Jesus defeated death and rose to life. Afterwards, Jesus appeared before a woman called Mary Magdalene and then his disciples.
[Cave burials are used by traditional desert Aboriginals to protect bodies from wild animals.]

"Jesus was then taken up to heaven to God, right in front of his disciples."

Reflections(3)

Several questions arise. It would be interesting to explore the relationship between present Aboriginal Christians' understanding of Christianity and their traditional beliefs and worldview.

The version of the Gospel presented above is basically a "Jesus story" with ethical applications, and is very unlike the "explaining concepts" approach that many white people use. It is worth noting that Mark 1:1 conceives of the Gospel as a Jesus story. Stories are culturally important among Aboriginal people as ways of conceptualising, enstructuring and communicating knowledge in concrete form. Will there be a greater need to explain about God and creation? Will it be necessary to discuss the relationship between Jesus' and the figures and stories of the Dreaming?

The role of ethics brings up questions about traditional ethical mindsets and why they should be so closely related to the Gospel. Is ethics a most important felt need because they also have a traditional law and extensive social obligations? If it is the latter, what then is the relationship between Christian ethics and traditional law and obligations?

Or is it holism that brings them together? The extensive ethical section emphasises a holistic message in the sense that the Gospel is a "whole of life" matter, not just acceptance of salvation. It is very different from a "preach salvation and follow up with discipleship" approach, and implies that discipleship is salvation. It remains to be seen the extent to which conversions among them are a process over a long period of time as opposed to a rapid, radical change.

Communicating the Gospel in such a case would require a series of teaching sessions in which the group could discuss each of the topics, which would normally be presented as stories in an appropriate kind of meeting. This communication approach is very effective and has been used extensively among many tribal and clan peoples.

Conclusion

For many years I've seen at first hand the adverse situation facing the Aboriginal peoples. I've been aware of statistics pointing to a short, hard life. But the more oppressive the conditions, the more that people open their hearts to the Holy Spirit, and they are already a spiritual people. Traditional Aboriginal culture respects their elderly, shares its resources, has family and tribal commitments, is not materialistic, and is very aware of the need to care for their environment.

In writing the Gospel, I could see how it would appeal to Aboriginal people. They arguably have more in common with Jesus and the Gospel kerygma than hedonistic and materialistic middle and upper class Australians. Importantly, they have deep spiritual beliefs that can be tapped in order for them to understand and relate to the Gospels.

 

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Notes

¹ "Fella", "white fella", "black fella" are all acceptable terms in many tribal lands, although in some other parts of Australia the term 'black fella' may be considered politically incorrect.

² Australian Dreaming, 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History, Edited by Jennifer Isaacs, URE Smith Press, Willoughby NSW 1991. As such, Aboriginal people could relate to God's son being in the form of a person.

³ Ross Woods.